Bodhan AI at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) has unveiled plans to develop a sovereign, AI-powered education ecosystem to enhance learning, assessment, teaching, and administration nationwide. The announcement was made on February 12 in Delhi during the Bharat Bodhan AI Conclave 2026, a forum dedicated to exploring AI-enabled education.
Prof Mitesh M Khapra of the Wadhwani School of Data Science and AI at IIT Madras, who leads the initiative, stated, “Education has always been at the heart of India’s aspirations. From our ancient universities to modern schools, we, as a country and a civilisation, have always believed in the power of education to shape the future. Today, we are at a historic moment: this belief remains unchanged, but the tools available to us to accelerate innovation in this space have changed dramatically. It is up to us to make use of this new form of AI, which is a resource that can be replicated, adapted and distributed at scale.”
He added, “For decades, we have known that high-quality education depends on access to great teaching and content, personalised practice, and timely, patient feedback. For the first time in history, we now have the capability to deliver all three at scale, for every citizen, in every language. By building Bodhan AI as part of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure for education, we are ensuring that this capability is sovereign, inclusive, and designed for public good — strengthening teachers, empowering learners, and supporting the nation’s long-term educational transformation.”
During the event, IIT Madras announced the formation of an International Advisory Council chaired by Prof Sethuraman Panchanathan of Arizona State University, aimed at integrating global best practices in education. Prof Panchanathan is recognised as a global leader in AI innovation and inclusive education.
Dr Pratyush Kumar, Co-Founder of Sarvam AI, remarked, “The reality is that AI is rapidly progressing. By the end of this calendar year, it would not be surprising if, in top companies worldwide, 100% of programming were done by AI. By programming, I mean coding. This is the reality. This is not hype. What this means for the next year and the year after that, no one knows. And that is scary, exciting and also challenging from a point of view of how we approach various things like education, research, etc. The scientific challenge is to reach a point where AI is building AI and a critical mass of self-improvement is achieved. While that is the challenge animating most of the world, I think in India, this challenge, which is that we have a population of 1.4 billion people who need to be productively and satisfactorily involved in life, is an important problem as well. I see the problem of Artificial General Intelligence as one of how to make AI and life sustainable.”
Addressing the conclave’s inauguration, Prof V Kamakoti, Director of IIT Madras, said, “This Conclave is a very firm step taken by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, in line with the visionary statement of Swami Vivekananda, ‘If the poor cannot afford Education, then the Education must reach the poor’. As aptly articulated in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, we believe that AI is the technology that can comprehensively solve this problem. At the outset, I thank the Ministry of Education, Government of India, under the able guidance of Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Hon’ble Education Minister, to have conceived the idea of setting up a Centre of Excellence in AI for Education and assigning the responsibility of hosting the Centre of Excellence to IIT Madras.”
Prof Kamakoti further stated, “We have an immediate need to reach the Gross Enrolment Ratio of 50% by 2035, as envisaged in the NEP 2020. We firmly believe that AI has the potential to solve this problem, creating the most positive impact in society and democratising Education for All… We decided to explore the full landscape of available solutions in our country to understand what is available, what could be refined, and what needs to be built. We intend to provide a sovereign, robust, digital public infrastructure for AI in Education.”
The conclave, held on February 12 and 13, 2026, forms part of the national mandate of the Centre of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence for Education established by the Ministry of Education at IIT Madras. Its purpose is to advance responsible, scalable, India-first AI solutions aligned with NEP 2020 and national digital frameworks.
Bodhan AI marks the first instance of technology delivering high-quality teaching, personalised practice, and timely feedback at scale for all citizens in every Indian language. Incorporating Bodhan AI into India’s digital public infrastructure will ensure the system remains sovereign, inclusive, and geared toward long-term educational transformation.
The initiative, aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, NIPUN Bharat, and Samagra Shiksha, will develop solutions that provide high-quality content, personalised practice, and real-time feedback across Indian languages and curricula. It will integrate with national platforms such as DIKSHA, APAAR, Vidya Samiksha Kendras, and state MIS systems to ensure continuity, interoperability, and equitable access.
The platform is designed to support multilingual capabilities, align with NCERT and SCERT frameworks, enable AI-assisted assessments with actionable teacher insights, and incorporate robust safety and bias safeguards. It will also conduct foundational research to assist AI systems in understanding handwritten notebooks, printed textbooks, video content, and real-life contextual examples relevant to Indian learners.
By building on a sovereign digital public infrastructure where data continually improves models and outcomes, Bodhan AI aims to ensure that India’s educational intelligence remains aligned with national priorities, inclusive growth, and public good, while keeping teachers central to the system.
